Research and Development

The mission of the Office of Research and Development (R&D) is to support U.S. national and nuclear security objectives in reducing global nuclear security threats through the innovation of unilateral and multi-lateral technical capabilities to detect, identify, and characterize: 1) foreign nuclear weapons programs, 2) illicit diversion of special nuclear materials, and 3) global nuclear detonations.

R&D is organized into two offices:

Proliferation Detection develops technologies to detect foreign nuclear weapons development activities; to support nuclear arms control treaties verification and monitoring for compliance; and to support national nuclear security more broadly